Saturday, March 26, 2016

First of all I'd like to wish everyone a happy and safe Easter. Hope the Easter bunny comes to you all.Yesterday (Good Friday) was my father's 80th birthday. I'm posting the card I made for him using my new Mini Minc machine.

I foiled the background using the Signature 12x12" paper pack with some Teal foil. The Charming Themed card was also foiled with the teal foil. The sentiment was foiled in gold onto a sheet of toner paper and then die cut using MFT Brushstroke Birthday Greetings die set. The 80 came from the Ephemera pack and was also foiled in gold. These were layered onto a 14x14cm white card blank and decorated with some teal sequins. (OMG! It's so hot as I'm typing this - sweat is running down the sides of my face.)The photo is terrible as I quickly took it before we drove to Dad's place for a birthday lunch. The glue has also shown up in the photo, but IRL you can't see it at all where I smudged it gluing the sentiment in place. You also can't see the colour properly. It really looked so stunning IRL.Dad's not the sort of person who really cares about cards, but it was an excuse to play with my Minc. I'm loving it and learning a lot about it, as I've just finished a commission for Practical Publishing about the Minc machine (doing a review and cards).One thing I've found out, though, is that, while it may be more economical to print a sheet of toner paper using a laser printer, you don't get the quality of finish as you do with the Minc Toner paper. If it's just for a background mat, the laser toner paper would suffice, but if you can see most of it, then you really need to go with the Minc toner paper. I also tried out the Minc toner pen and, while it's great for adding strokes and swirls to your paper for an artistic effect, it is NO good for colouring in sentiments etc to cover with foil (uneven and smudgy result). Also if you're die cutting a sheet of cardstock you've already foiled, leave the plastic cover sheet in place and die cut through it. You'll get less scratching of the foil.My favourite technique to do is double foiling. I'll post a couple of cards using this technique in a couple of days. You'll love it too.Anyway, bye for now.Love,Janelle

Friday, March 18, 2016

Something funny was the name of the game, so I created this card using an Art Impressions stamp called "Golden Oldies". (I hope you find the humour in it...?)

(front)

(inside)

I coloured it using my Spectrum Noir colored pencils, some blending solution and a blending stump. Because I didn't have a sentiment stamp to match, I had to hand write the sentiment using a fineline black marker. Not the neatest, I'm afraid. I tried printing it on my printer but the cardstock was too thick and wouldn't feed through. Maybe I could have printed it out on paper and then, having matted it with ... say...light blue, then attached it back onto the card. What do you think?

I also used some Glossy Accents on the bubbles and her emeralds. The bubble foam was painted over with some Twinkling H2O's (Pearl Blue). The card IRL has much more colour in it than shows up in these photos. The cardstock used for the background is also white. Don't know but I'm having trouble with my camera/computer.Anyway, bye for now.Love,Janelle

Here are a selection of cards I created for Practical Publishing a while ago that demonstrated techniques that could be used to watercolour backgrounds for cards. I used salt, over white heat embossing, wet-on-wet technique, using embossing folders, with stencils (lifting colour) and over the top of texture paste.

The green one that was done using an embossing folder is actually ombre in effect (very subtle) but accomplished by laying progressively darker shades of green down the embossing folder before closing it to run through the diecutting machine.I think my fave is the one at the top where I added salt to the multicoloured panel while the paint was still wet. Lovely effect.Hope you enjoy these.Bye for now.Love,Janelle

Monday, March 7, 2016

I was trying for a funny St Patrick's card, so chose the flamingos and gold pot digistamps, coloured them with Copic markers, then completed the card with some computer generated sentiments (both inside and on the front of the card). The rainbow was hand drawn onto the background, coloured with Copics and highlighted with some clear Wink of Stella. I used a green card base to further match the theme.

The front:

The inside of the card:

Pop on over to the blog and see what the other design team members have created. If you feel like it, create a card of your own and add it to the InLinx link at the end of the challenge details.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

I hope I don't get into trouble for telling you this yet, but, I've been asked to be on the design team for two internet card challenges. I'm so excited!!!They are both the brainchildren of Angie Addison. from Florida, USA. The first one is Get Creative Challenges and the other is Simply Create Too Challenges. I'll be submitting cards for them real soon - can hardly wait!!!I have also started a Facebook page. I'm a bit of a techno-dino, when it comes to things like that, but I need it for my crafting, so needs must....... (I think that's how it goes.) I will be using it mostly for cards etc. I hope those who have asked to be my friend don't get too disappointed with what I post on it. :)Speaking of dinosaurs, I've ordered a ring with a Dinogem in it. In case you don't know, Dinogems are agatized dinosaur bones and sometimes called "gembone". The stone for my ring is said to be from a T Rex. How cool is that???! I'll post a photo when it comes.Lastly I'm posting some cards I made for Practical Publishing a while back and hope you like them. They used foiling techniques from heat foiling, using glues, stamping, double-sided tape, gilding flakes and gold leaf.

The "Hello" card uses what I've called a faux velvet technique. IRL the texture on the card looks like jacquard velvet (the red/brown bits). This is because I applied gilding flakes through a stencil (onto a panel of double-sided adhesive sheet, then rubbed in some Distress Glitter once the stencil was removed. Because the glitter flakes are rather large, they don't lie flat and you see a nap, like in real velvet.

I'd seen it with microbeads added but not the Distress Glitter, and I really love the effect that produced. Another good thing also, the glitter doesn't continue to brush off with this type. No more fairyland funhouse here. :)

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About Me

Hi, I'm Janelle. I'm a stay-at-home wife to a very caring and understanding hubby and mum of a 14 year-old boy. I've been cardmaking for a long time (working on the design team for Practical Publishing for the past five years). I also enjoy walks on the beach, candlelit dinners and romantic music, (Oh sorry, wrong blog!!!)